This invention relates to a squeegee or like cleaning appliance, particularly for cleaning window panes and floors.
Cleaning appliances such as squeegees are known in the art. The squeegee is especially effective at cleaning smooth surfaces that smear easily such as glass. The squeegee consists of a replaceable cleaning element, most commonly a rubber blade which effectively moves moisture across the glass surface, enabling the window to be thoroughly cleaned by removing all traces of moisture from the surface. One of the foremost problems in prior art devices has been the difficulty of inserting and removing the replaceable cleaning element, and holding the element in place while the squeegee is being used. Devices have been proposed which comprise clamping jaws coupled by an arm and urged apart by a coil spring. A widened outside end of this arm loosely bears against one clamping jaw whereas its other end is pivoted by a hand lever in the form of an eccentric. This permits the clamping jaws to be closed and locked contrary to the thrust of the coil spring. Other locking mechanisms such as one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,892,005 to Berns also require a complicated clamping mechanism to hold the rubber squeegee blade into the holder for the blade. The mechanism disclosed in 3,892,005 is bulky and over a period of time becomes less and less effective due to loss of tension in the metal components caused by periodic use.
Other clamping mechanisms in the prior art have a common feature, in that they cause the top surface and a bottom surface between which the squeegee is placed to exert force upon one another thereby clamping down on the squeegee in a vice-like fashion. Some devices utilize screws to draw the top and bottom surfaces together, clamping the replaceable cleaning element therebetween. This type of fastening apparatus is very difficult to use because it requires considerable time to tighten and loosen the screws and necessitates the use of a tool.